We’ve talked about cross-channel advertising and marketing quite a bit on this blog and for good reason: It’s future of online marketing. As consumer attention gets more and more fragmented by the amount of information and the wide range of channels at their disposal, it’s essential that businesses utilize more than one device, channel, or platform to reach their target audience.
As a case study, we’d like to bring up the public service campaign of Metro Trains Melbourne. You remember, them right? We melted with cuteness over their Dumb Ways to Die music video in November.
To refresh your memory, the Dumb Ways to Die campaign featured a bunch of adorable–but regrettably dumb–characters that did a bunch of stupid mistakes that led to their tragic (but cute) downfall. The video was released by Metro Trains Melbourne to encourage the public to put safety first when they’re around trains. The music video also featured a catchy song that got stuck in people’s heads (but in a good way).
Cross-Channel Marketing: You’re Doing It Right
The campaign went viral, racking up millions of YouTube views in a short period of time. It was a smashing hit, and considering that the campaign was a public service announcement, it was a colossal achievement.
The Dumb Ways to Die campaign was shared and viewed so many times that it pretty much dominated YouTube, the blogosphere, and social media. And just when you thought that it couldn’t get any better, it dominated the mobile arena as well.
How? By creating an app.
Released a couple of months ago, the Dumb Ways to Die app by Metro Trains Melbourne, it quickly rose to the top of iTunes’ games category because of it’s fun and addicting nature.
Dumb Ways to Die lets you play a number of games featuring the same adorable characters from the original video that we all know and love. Your job is to save them from themselves and keep them from dying.
Remember that guy who died trying to fish out a piece of toast using a fork? Well in the game, your mission is to help him gingerly take out the toast without the fork touching the toaster. Then that character that used its private parts as piranha bait? Help keep them safe by flicking to pesky fishes away. There are more fun games in store, so do yourself a favor and get it from the app store now.
The app is so successful, it’s been downloaded millions of times and at the time of writing this has 49,754 reviews. (Average rating is 4.5 stars).
What you can learn from Dumb Ways to Die
Aside from staying safe around trains, the Dumb Ways to Die campaign teaches us a very valuable lesson in online marketing: Use multiple channels. What’s great about Metro Trains Melbourne is that it didn’t stop with video, web, and social channels–it took the campaign to a whole new level by thinking outside the box and releasing an engaging app.